“On my twelfth birthday, a tutor named Agatha […] was hired to oversee my education: namely, to instill me with knowledge of the manners and etiquette that would be necessary for marriage. It was through Agatha, a bit belatedly, that I was taught the formalities and customs of genteel women, a counterbalance to my years spent shadowing my father.”

Lady Tremaine’s relationship and experience with her childhood tutor, Agatha, dictates the way she sees the world throughout her life. Agatha taught her how to be a woman and thus conform to social norms and rigid gender standards. Throughout the novel, Agatha’s words continue to play in Lady Tremaine’s consciousness—offering her guidance amid her unprecedented circumstances. This moment underscores how closely Lady Tremaine feels she must abide by convention to survive.

“At one time, the room would have been filled with a house of people standing in order. What we lacked now in staff, we made up for with candlesticks and rugs; we’d emptied other rooms of the house so that the entry could remain opulent.”

Lady Tremaine’s description of Bramley Hall conveys how much her life has changed since her second husband Lord Robert Bramley’s death. In the past, the house was filled with people and lavish ornaments. In the present, the house lacks a staff and is emptied of finery. Although still a lady by title, Lady Tremaine’s living situation proves the dire nature of her situation and her perpetual attempts to perform an acceptable way of life for her own and her daughters’ safety.

“One of the falconers had reached out and cupped the other man’s cheek in the palm of his hand, a tenderhearted gesture, recognizable and familiar in its sentiment. It echoed what those who denuded daisies wished for, what I imagined my parents had had, a frisson of what I felt crouched in the mud beside Henry; it echoed love.”

The secret tryst that Lady Tremaine and Henry Tremaine witnessed between the huntsmen as children provides insight into Lady Tremaine’s regard for love. She identified the huntsmen’s intimate action as an innate sign of heartfelt affection—and believed it echoed her own feelings for Henry. At the same time, the huntsmen’s love was secret and forbidden, implying that true romance is disallowed in Lady Tremaine’s rigid society.

“Instead of adapting to her new circumstances, she had spent years waiting for them to change. Dedicating herself to the markers of gentility: Instruments and language and translations. Posture and poise and art. […] My efforts to mold Elin from a child into a young woman in our situation had been like attempting to mold air.”

Lady Tremaine’s reflections on her stepdaughter, Elin, provide insight into their fraught relationship. While Lady Tremaine is usually the villain in other Cinderella iterations, here, Hochhauser presents her as the sympathetic character, while Elin (Cinderella) is the difficult, unadaptable brat. Lady Tremaine internalizes society’s norms and expectations, but never at the expense of her own survival. She resents Elin for jeopardizing their family by failing to contribute to their survival and clinging too closely to a fantasy.

“Sigrid had been raised to keep her hunger bridled. Women, in her world, were not meant to express desire or thirst or appetite. Women were not meant to express. But I had always sat at a table of men who ate with their fingers, ripped flesh from bone […] And it was only recently I had understood I was supposed to be different.”

Lady Tremaine compared herself to Sigrid when they first met as girls because she was learning from other women how to be in the world, introducing the novel’s thematic examination of The Tension Between Love and Ambition. Agatha was her only feminine influence, so Sigrid naturally became a teacher. When she observed Sigrid’s penchant for docility, silence, and composure, she began to understand that this was how she was meant to conduct herself, too. The passage also furthers the theme of women’s survival within a rigid patriarchal system.

“It was the first time we were working together, toward the same goal. [Agatha] may have believed she had finally tamed me, or that her job was done. But I felt, in the adding of each stitch, in the repetition of the needle diving in and out of that blue cloth, in the pulling of the thread, that I was building a pathway to my own future.”

Lady Tremaine’s wedding dress is a symbol of her former life and her youthful hopefulness. In this passage, she recalls the experience of making the dress with Agatha. In literally constructing the dress by hand, Lady Tremaine was orchestrating her own future. Sewing the dress was an act of autonomy and self-liberation.

“You do. You boil the sheets and carry your own water. I must draw the line somewhere. You must keep up appearances. I do not want a future where you must rummage for woodcock and snipe in order to eat your supper!”

This scene of dialogue between Lady Tremaine and Mathilde underscores the theme of The Sacrificial Nature of a Mother’s Love. Lady Tremaine is frustrated with Mathilde for compromising her plans for her future because she doesn’t want Mathilde to lead the life she has led. She is devoting her energies to giving Mathilde a different, more secure way of life. Her frustrated tone is reflective of her maternal love.

“Lady Tremaine did not exist. Or rather, she was not a real person. But, though it was not the world’s name for me, it was my truest one: An accurate depiction of what I gave and took from each of my marriages. Tremaine was the name from my first, the marriage of my heart. My title came from the second.”

Lady Tremaine’s reflections on her name further the theme of women’s survival within a rigid patriarchal system. She has chosen to preserve the last name “Tremaine” in memory of her first love, Henry, and their marriage and has chosen to preserve her title to help navigate her class system. Marriage is a tool for her own survival.

“And in that, I had been successful: The girls would go to the ball. But I didn’t feel relief. No sooner had I achieved what I’d wanted than I’d realized how much more there was to want: It was like summiting a hilltop to see, from a new vantage point at the top, an entire mountain range ahead.”

Lady Tremaine’s internal monologue on the way home from her meeting with the queen conveys the difficulty of her social position and circumstances. She is doing everything possible to help her daughters secure an advantageous marriage, but she remains exhausted and powerless. The hilltop and mountain-range metaphors convey the challenges of climbing the proverbial social ladder of power, wealth, and influence.

“‘The compass of virtue guides one through the seas of challenges. Even in the darkest of nights, if a young woman nurtures the seeds of virtue—gentleness, goodness, docility—within her heart, life will only reward her.’ She closed the book and raised her eyes to meet mine once more. ‘Don’t you see? All will turn out fine.’”

In this scene, Elin reads to Lady Tremaine from her mother’s etiquette book, underscoring how desperate she is to believe in the rules of conduct that her society has outlined for her. Elin has convinced herself that if she is “gentle,” “good,” and “docile,” then her life will “only reward her” and she will secure lasting happiness. Lady Tremaine knows this is a lie but proves powerless to disrupt Elin’s belief in a system that disadvantages women.

“We clutched one another’s hands and squeezed—grasping, grasping, at our wonderful turn of fortune. There was a world of riches and splendor, inaccessible to most, that shown so brightly. But we had just touched it—Rosie was still twisting that same lock of hair—and could see the sheen on our fingertips.”

Lady Tremaine’s successfully staged picnic creates a hopeful, buoyant narrative mood. She is thrilled that her ruse has gone as planned and has offered her daughters proximity to “a world of riches and splendor” that few can hope to touch. The happy narrative tone in this passage conveys how desperate Lady Tremaine is to change her and her daughters’ circumstances.

“And yet, I did not feel old. I recognized the face that I could see in the looking glass. I knew the beating heart in my chest. I felt vaguely astonished to have children who were adults themselves. I squared myself, squeezing my shoulders. So many years had ticked past—through drudgery, necessity, injury—as if leading to this moment. To the evening’s ball. To what I hoped would be a turning point.”

The image of Lady Tremaine observing herself in the mirror provides new insight into her character. Throughout much of the novel, she thinks only of her daughters and never of herself. In this scene, Lady Tremaine can perceive and recognize her own humanity. The image of her “squaring and squeezing” her shoulders captures her strength, while the reference to her shock at having adult children implies that she hasn’t had the opportunity to live a full life of her own.

“As I watched Rosie dance, the hope in my breast had become so alive that it was painful—more of a needful kind of want than I had ever experienced. The pain of two dead husbands and a crumbling house and a life constructed on a thousand lies. Oh, to see her well. To see her secure.”

The use of descriptive and detailed language in this passage provides insight into Lady Tremaine’s state of mind. While watching her daughter dance with the prince, Lady Tremaine is overcome by intense emotionality, which is represented via diction like “painful,” “needful,” “pain,” and “crumbling.” She so intensely wants a secure future for her daughter that she is overcome by heartache for her own disappointed past.

“Of course families are negotiated. We are all in negotiation. A marriage begins with negotiation and continues to be one. And that is if fortune smiles upon you! If you are not viewed as chattel, or property. Do you really think it will be so simple? You will go to one ball, and your world of sorrow will be resolved in a single stroke?”

Lady Tremaine’s dialogue with Elin underscores her frustrated desperation to manipulate the social system to her and her daughters’ advantage. She is frustrated with Elin’s naivety and ignorance and furious that her stepdaughter was willing to defy her for her own gain. Her words have a bitter, hostile, and indignant tone, which reflects how she feels about her own, larger circumstances.

“The house is going to fill up with every manner of visitor and guest, not to mention the royals themselves. You’re going to have to feed and entertain them, with little help and no money. Forgive me for saying so, but you are treading a precarious path.”

Alice delivers this warning to Lady Tremaine after Elin and Prince Simeon become engaged, which foreshadows the novel’s climactic revelations. Alice is urging Lady Tremaine to consider the consequences of feigning economic status and security because she is mistrusting of the system. Lady Tremaine knows Alice is right, but much like Elin, she still wants to believe that she can manipulate the system to her advantage.

“We will obtain more proposals and choose which is best. Mathilde, do not make that face at me. This is a good thing. Elin’s engagement bodes well. You have to see the possibilities of every situation, to see the possibilities in your life […] To believe in what you are able to become!”

Lady Tremaine’s lecture to her daughter about marriage furthers the theme of women’s survival within a rigid patriarchal system. Lady Tremaine urges Mathilde to reframe Elin’s engagement to the prince in an advantageous light. She wants Mathilde to understand the benefits of the alliance and to accept her own station. She believes that delivering these lessons to her daughter is vital for Mathilde’s survival in a system that disparages her.

“It is only that Elin and I cannot stand to wait. We are ever so impatient. Young love. You must have known it. I think, in fact, I recall my mother knows a bit about both of your long-ago, ill-fated engagements. Each were only a few weeks, were they not? My condolences, by the way. Twice over. But you understand the heart has a sense of urgency.”

Simeon’s dialogue with Lady Tremaine forebodes his nefarious nature. On its surface, Simeon’s speech is heartfelt and kind. He uses language like “love,” “condolences,” and “understand” to appeal to Lady Tremaine. At the same time, he is putting Lady Tremaine down and reminding her of her powerlessness and her low station. He is thus insulting her while maintaining the air of the charming prince—his duplicitous speech foreshadows the revelations about his duplicitous nature.

“Not suitable, he had said. I had felt the abuse of the words like a brand on my own skin. You ask the wrong questions, he had said. I could not help but wonder—clearing the last of the loaves, whipping the diamond-patterned linen from the table, shutting the doors to the great hall behind me—not suitable for what?”

In this scene, Lady Tremaine muses on Otto’s warnings and words, desperate to understand his meaning. The questions she asks foreshadow the revelations regarding Otto’s true desire to protect Lady Tremaine and her daughters. The image of Lady Tremaine sweeping up the dinner also metaphorically implies that all artifice will soon be swept away and the truth will be revealed.

“So perhaps there was another way to look at what Simeon and Sigrid were doing. Deception, yes, but also a kind of familial chivalry. The protection of a beloved sister and daughter. Would I do it any different? I thought yes. I thought no. I could not get my thoughts to settle.”

Lady Tremaine’s internal monologue reveals how closely she defines herself according to her maternal role. As soon as she learns about Princess Hemma’s pregnancy and Sigrid and Simeon’s plan to conceal it, she tries to relate to the story. She wants to believe that Simeon and Sigrid’s deception is no different from her own because this would absolve her from interfering. However, the latter four lines convey her internal conflict and struggle to abide by her own moral code.

“There was not time to examine Hemma’s story. To get every detail. To compose the questions that were swirling, half formed, around my mind. But did the how or the when or even the why really matter in the face of the what? No amount of information changed the what.”

Lady Tremaine’s meeting with Hemma marks a turning point in the narrative and urges her toward change. When she learns the truth about Hemma’s pregnancy, she is forced to accept the reality of Simeon’s brutality. The use of anaphora, italics, and fragmentation in this passage enacts Lady Tremaine’s work to convince herself of an impossible new reality and truth.

“‘You of all people should know there is nothing’—Mathilde gritted her teeth, each word ground out and carefully measured—‘protective about marriage! […] All your talk of our futures, Mama, but what about what is in front of you? Look around! The roof has fallen in. You’ve confined us to a prison of performance. You choose a false kind of safety for us again and again. And then take freedom for yourself!’”

Mathilde’s speech captures her longing for freedom, autonomy, and a self-defined fate. She is airing her frustrations with her mother, and thus with the larger social system, for the first time. She is tired of following her mother’s directives because they have only led to “a prison of performance” and “a false kind of safety.” She wants to discard artifice and live more truly. Her words spur Lady Tremaine toward action and change, challenging her to defend Elin and to act against social expectations.

“I had a little bit of resentment. That some of the calluses on my palms might have been borne by her instead. That we might have shared more burdens. As she nosed my shoulder, I thought about all she had lost. A kingdom. A life. A story. An exit, away from me and my daughters. She had no idea what’d I’d given up for her […] And yet—what do children do except take without knowledge of the sacrifice behind the giving?”

The scene of Lady Tremaine and Elin holding hands on their carriage ride home from the inn marks a turning point in Lady Tremaine’s character arc. Here, she acknowledges both her resentment and sympathy for her stepdaughter. She is frustrated with Elin’s historical resistance to helping the family, but she can also relate to Elin’s loss and need. She is beginning to expand her definition of motherhood, this time to include her stepdaughter.

“I had wanted so much for my daughters, for so long. Had worked so hard and had pushed them harder. I had told Otto, just a few days before, that contentedness was only recognized once it was gone. Was that this very situation? Had I been striving for years, wanting, aching for more, more, more, unable to recognize the value of what was in front of me?”

Lady Tremaine’s reflections on happiness help her change her perspective on her situation. Her circumstances have forced her to fight for her survival—always pursuing more. Now, however, Lady Tremaine realizes that wanting more only leads to wanting more. She decides to accept her circumstances and value what is in front of her for the first time.